I must thank my little 12 yr old sister for this one.

She is one of the most active people I can think of off the top of my head that has a constant desire to do the right thing in energy, recycling, animal conservancy etc. She has had such and impact on what I do at work with printing, faxing, light usage, so on and so forth.

While I do my part there are people who are “Green Consultants”. Their Job is to go to your company or home and fix it to make your home or business greener, and more energy efficient. If you’re a business on a large scale, I suggest doing some research and hiring a professional, this would give you the best results. But if you’re a home, or small business consider the following tips to help you out.

Fluorescent Lights

After installing these in my home lights, the electricity bill dropped $40. NO JOKE! These lights also emit less heat, meaning less cooling costs. They alter the view a little bit, being white light, but they do help a lot.

Automated Thermostat

Use an automated thermostat to keep your home cooler at night, when you’re there and need the comfort, and warmer during the day, when you’re not there and don’t need a cool home. The few degrees of difference help keep your AC closer to outside temperatures, and yield for more efficient cooling costs.

Seal it Up

Check your ducts, and seal them, there could be lots of loss through the ducts. Close and seal the windows, major cooling and heat loss here too, check ‘em and seal ‘em. If need be check your insulation, poor insulation will lead to a super fast loss of efficiency.

Don’t Print What You Don’t Need

If you can keep it on PDF do so. I use Primo PDF, free and efficient. It prints .doc to PDF and works well. Keep a USB thumb drive to move files around too. If you don’t need to print it, DON’T!

Check Out These Sites

http://www.treehugger.com/

http://www.thegreenoffice.com

http://www.greenbiz.com/

IBM Builds Green Data Center for GIB-Services; Innovative Technology to Heat Local Public Swimming Pool

Unique Energy Efficient Data Center Solution Promotes Heat Reclamation

April 02, 2008: 04:57 PM EST

IBM (NYSE: IBM) and GIB-Services today announced a new energy efficient “green” data center at a former military bunker outside of Zurich. The new data center is a highly secure data storage facility where GIB will support its clients in Switzerland, and will offer a first-of-its-kind energy model where a direct heat exchange will take place between the data center and a public swimming pool in the town.

Located in Uitikon, Switzerland, the data center is expected to create 2,800 megawatts of wasted heat per year when operating at full capacity — the same amount of energy needed to supply up to 80 houses with heating and warm water for one year. In order to repurpose some of this previously wasted energy, the town is looking to the needs of local civilians — ensuring a comfortable temperature for swimming in the town pool.

“We found a partner for this unique project in IBM, a company that distinguishes itself through its vast experience in building high availability data centers with the highest demands on security,” said Hans-Rudolf Schärer, president of the board of directors, GIB-Services. “Our decision to collaborate with IBM was easily made given IBM’s data center expertise, innovation and commitment to green technology.”

“This is a great example of an innovative client solution that not only provides a client with a secure and energy efficient data center, but is also a technology breakthrough to benefit the town,” says Steve Sams, vice president of IBM Global Site and Facilities Services. “Theoretically it is possible to reuse up to 90 percent of the electric power required for the operation of the data center as heat energy. Through reclaiming the heat, approximately 130 tons of carbon emissions can be saved. This corresponds to the carbon dioxide discharge of mid-size cars driving 500,000 miles.”

The data center agreement was signed in 2007 and recently completed in the first quarter of 2008. The project to heat to the public swimming pool was signed in the first quarter of 2008 and will be completed in the next few months.

About IBM Project Big Green

Announced in May 2007, Project Big Green is a $1 billion initiative to dramatically reduce energy use by IBM and its clients. The initiative includes new energy efficient IBM products and services and a five step approach to energy efficiency in the data center. If followed, this approach can sharply reduce data center energy consumption, transforming clients’ technology infrastructure into “green” data centers and provide energy savings of up to 42 percent for an average data center. More information about IBM Project Big Green is available at www.ibm.com/press/projectbiggreen.

About GIB-Services

The Swiss IT company GIB-Services AG offers site and co-location services, and will lease out space in the new data center bunker to customers with high demands on protection and availability. The company’s key business is to provide enterprises with a perfectly functioning IT infrastructure in times of increasing IT complexity and requirements, and where ever-increasing expertise is crucial. The portfolio of GIB-Services embraces products and services like server based computing, system tuning, system audits, operational support and technical consulting.

Media contacts:
Tim Willeford
IBM Corporation
+1 (914) 766-4618
twilleford@us.ibm.com
Sebastian Drews
IBM Switzerland
+41-58-333-5127
sebastian.drews@ch.ibm.com

From Eco-Safe,

A little about The ECO-SAFE Foundation

ECO-SAFE was started in 1998 by a group of international friends, and focuses on sparking ecological change with technology. For years we’ve been active in making technology more eco safe from our individual locations around the world. In 2008 we embarked on a mission to bring awareness and environmentally friendly practices to the Internet.

We believe in the power of our individual voice and collective voice as a whole. Together we can change the world. I can, you can, we can. Here and now, from this day forward.

Thank you to each person who has joined in the movement to help our planet. We also thank all of the the green superpowers that exist today. Environmentalists, Websites, Bloggers, and Organizations.